between 250k and 500k needed

R

radelahunt

New member
So i have an interesting dilemma that I'm sure some of you have solved.

i have a guitar with two classic stack Plus and a custom 5. the guitar came with 500k and Five-2 pickups. the 500k made the single coils sound like punches to the face. way too punchy.

i swapped to 250k. now when I'm at volume 5 the sustain dies off. notes don't hold as long with the classic stacks but the custom 5 is fine.

i tend to play with my volume and tone knobs. how can i compromise between 250k and 500k? i thought some company once made 400k?
 
What is the control layout of the guitar? I have two VOL and a master tone on my Strat, that could work. Or try a 300K pot. Knowing the layout would be a huge help.
 
a 300k pot would be a place to start. i also always test my pots, and usually buy a handful at a time (saves on shipping). take ten 500k pots and youll get a range. ive had as low as 380 and as high as 560k that i can recall
 
We should probably address what's causing your sustain to die with 250k pots at low volume. That's a good sign that something is broken. Or perhaps something later on down the train is having a problem
 
Chistopher said:
We should probably address what's causing your sustain to die with 250k pots at low volume. That's a good sign that something is broken. Or perhaps something later on down the train is having a problem
Click to expand...

Warning: long post.

Common setup: all 3 guitars are Fender Showmasters and have floating tremolo, rosewood fretboards, set up to basic Fender specs with EXL120 strings. I play all guitars at 5 volume for rhythm and roll to 10 for solos. All get played through an amp sim + compressor on my Boss ME-90.

Showmaster #1 is a QMT HH (mahogany body), Jazz/Full Shred, 500k pots. No sustain problems playing the way I do with the knobs.

Showmaster #2 with basswood body ("FAT SSS"). 2x Classic Stack Plus, one Custom 5 stacked humbucker in single coil size body (custom shop). 250k pots. Both the classic stacks have the sustain problems when at volume 5, no such problems at volume 10. The bridge has no problems at any volume level. (originally it had 500k's with the Five-2 pickups x3, that was too punchy, so I swapped the pots for 250ks with the pickups at the same time and i don't recall testing the classic stack plus ones with the 500k's.)

Showmaster #3 is another QMT HH (mahogany body), with essentially the Psyclone set and 500k pots, no issues here either.

All the guitars have an action set up to basic Fender specs, not lower than the stock recommendation, no strings are ringing out on the fretboard due to being too low, none of the necks are warped.

I'm a gigging musician and so my setup is basically the same, high quality 1/4" cable into a direct box from Boss ME-90 line out. I use a WL-20 wireless with all of them at every gig.
 
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Are the 500k and 250k pots the same taper? There's a chance that if the 500k is linear and the 250k is audio, the reason your signal with the 250k pots and single coil ducks under the floor of your compressor and that's why it has a weird lack of sustain
 
Chistopher said:
Are the 500k and 250k pots the same taper? There's a chance that if the 500k is linear and the 250k is audio, the reason your signal with the 250k pots and single coil ducks under the floor of your compressor and that's why it has a weird lack of sustain
Click to expand...
I honestly don't know. I am headed back to the guitar tech soon so I can ask him to verify them.
 
Chistopher said:
Are the 500k and 250k pots the same taper? There's a chance that if the 500k is linear and the 250k is audio, the reason your signal with the 250k pots and single coil ducks under the floor of your compressor and that's why it has a weird lack of sustain
Click to expand...
Damn, that's a really good point. Glad you mentioned it, that sounds like the most likely cause of the OP's problem.
 
radelahunt said:
So i have an interesting dilemma that I'm sure some of you have solved.

i have a guitar with two classic stack Plus and a custom 5. the guitar came with 500k and Five-2 pickups. the 500k made the single coils sound like punches to the face. way too punchy.

i swapped to 250k. now when I'm at volume 5 the sustain dies off. notes don't hold as long with the classic stacks but the custom 5 is fine.

i tend to play with my volume and tone knobs. how can i compromise between 250k and 500k? i thought some company once made 400k?
Click to expand...

An option you have with this is to add resistors in series to fine tune the response you want. Put the 500k pot back in then use resistors to tame them to your liking. Just make sure and add them in series with the tone pot, if you just put them on the hot wire coming out of the pickup it can reduce output and sound kinda off. To find your sweet spots just measure across the wiper middle lug and the output lug with your knob turned to where you want your new maximum to be then solder in the resistor between the selector and the tone knob. If you want to simulate a lower K volume pot you can put them across the volume knob also, I just prefer to do it on the tone section. Most of my HSS guitars have some sort of set up equal to this so I dont have to ride the tone knob when switching between the bucker and singles.
 
Edgecrusher said:
An option you have with this is to add resistors in series to fine tune the response you want. Put the 500k pot back in then use resistors to tame them to your liking. Just make sure and add them in series with the tone pot, if you just put them on the hot wire coming out of the pickup it can reduce output and sound kinda off. To find your sweet spots just measure across the wiper middle lug and the output lug with your knob turned to where you want your new maximum to be then solder in the resistor between the selector and the tone knob. If you want to simulate a lower K volume pot you can put them across the volume knob also, I just prefer to do it on the tone section. Most of my HSS guitars have some sort of set up equal to this so I dont have to ride the tone knob when switching between the bucker and singles.
Click to expand...
Add a resistor in parallel.
 
idsnowdog said:
Add a resistor in parallel.
Click to expand...
You can do it that way, I just dont prefer it, it tends to reduce the output of the singles too much for me, it makes them hard to balance in an HSS set up. Its also a different sound as it effects it across the board instead of just taming highs. 2 different ways of skinning the same cat
 
Edgecrusher said:
You can do it that way, I just dont prefer it, it tends to reduce the output of the singles too much for me, it makes them hard to balance in an HSS set up. Its also a different sound as it effects it across the board instead of just taming highs. 2 different ways of skinning the same cat
Click to expand...
It changes the taper a bit, but that's it.
 
hamerfan said:
It changes the taper a bit, but that's it.
Click to expand...
Adding resistors in parallel will change the resonant peak and if you move the resonant peak everything else moves a bit. It kinda has to doesnt it? When its in parallel you are shunting some signal to ground, it will effect the tone overall. This is also why you dont see the same tone changes when adding series resistance and to be clear your pots add series resistance not parallel. Now of course this all depends on how much you are adding. But the amount that the OP was considering is enough it will have an effect, not huge but enough to be clearly heard.
 
Two questions:
Are you adding a resistor between start and wiper or start and end? The added resistor is much higher than the resistance of the pot?
 
500 pot with 500 resistor equals 250

Pins 1 the hot from the pickup
Pin 3 ground

Any ground for one leg

If it is only for one pickup
You can use the switch leg and any ground

Instead of on the pot
Electrically it doesn't matter
 
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